B.C. to end state of emergency as wildfire risk winds down
Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 14 Sep, 2023 05:12 PM
The British Columbia government says it is ending the state of emergency imposed last month when thousands of residents were chased out of their homes by wildfires.
The government says in a statement the wildfire risk is diminishing in much of the province as temperatures cool, allowing most residents to return home.
Two people had escaped the home and a neighbour had pulled a third person from the building and attempted life-saving efforts. Firefighters then found a fourth person in the basement as they battled the flames.
Employees at a lodge housing workers for LNG Canada's under-construction facility in Kitimat, B.C., have won wage increases of up to 40 per cent, averting a strike. The workers' union, Unite Here Local 40, says in a statement the new deal was reached after mediation with the employer at the BC Labour Board.
The number of active wildfires in British Columbia has dipped below 450 as cooler weather and recent rain has cut the fire risk, although another hot spell could wipe out those gains as large sections of the province wilt under severe drought.
Two-thirds of cabinet portfolios have switched hands, with seven rookie ministers coming in to replace the seven ministers who are leaving. Five of the new ministers represent constituencies in Ontario, one is from British Columbia and one from Quebec.
Two new mass-timber courses are slated to begin in the fall at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. In addition, the province is providing 3.3-million-dollars to the school for the creation of a mass-timber training hub at B-C-I-T's Burnaby campus.
Mounties say it happened on Sunday morning at a home on Lalonde Road and that it was a targeted incident. They say surveillance footage shows a dark-coloured, extended cab pickup leaving the home at the time of the shooting.